Criminal justice reporter

Attorneys for admitted Athens cop-killer Jamie Hood have asked for a postponement of a mental competency trial scheduled for Tuesday because they need more time to prepare, according to documents recently filed in Clarke County Superior Court.

A private forensic psychiatrist for the defense needs the extra time to review thousands of pages of documents and produce his own report prior to the competency trial, defense attorneys argue. The attorneys included with their motion a letter from the psychiatrist in which he states he couldn’t be ready to testify until at least November.

But Hood’s defense team has had more than three months to prepare and the request for a new trial date is a delaying tactic, Western Judicial Circuit District Attorney Ken Mauldin argues in a rebuttal motion filed last week.

On an order of the court in July, Hood has already been evaluated by two doctors from the state Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, argues Mauldin, who added that under the law, Hood “has no automatic right” to an independent evaluation.

In several previous court appearances, Hood admitted that he shot and killed Athens-Clarke Senior Police Officer Elmer “Buddy” Christian III in March 2011. He’s expressed regret, but also has made vague statements that another officer he shot and wounded that day somehow was responsible for the violence.

Hood faces the death penalty not just for the double cop shooting, but for the December 2010 murder of a man on Athens’ westside, and dozens of other crimes in a 70-count indictment that include a carjacking, armed robbery and several kidnappings.

Defense attorneys filed a special plea of incompetency on Hood’s behalf in June, and Judge David Sweat scheduled a bench trial for July 30. That trial was postponed by prosecution motions to quash subpoenas that defense attorneys had served on several local and state agencies to prepare for the competency trial.

Sweat rescheduled the bench trial, in which he will be both judge and jury, for Sept. 4.

The defense has had ample time to go forward on that date, Mauldin argues.

“The only conclusion that can be reached at this point is the actions taken by the defense are merely an effort to delay the proceedings,” the prosecutor argues in his motion. In that motion, Mauldin also calls the plea of incompetency a sham because it’s based only on Hood’s unwillingness to help the defense team, which was court-appointed.

“Although one criteria of an individual’s competency to stand trial involves the capability to assist counsel, (Hood’s) refusal to assist his attorneys in this instance does not stem from a mental disability but rather a disagreement of trial strategy,” Mauldin argues.

“Jamie Hood, in court proceedings and through documents, has repeatedly voiced his dissatisfaction with his appointed counsel,” Mauldin wrote in the motion. “His primary complaint is that his appointed counsel has falsely described him as an abused child who suffers from mental disease.”

During his July 30 court appearance, Hood accused his attorneys from the Georgia Capital Defender Office of wanting to have him placed in a mental health facility to cover up the truth about what led to the death of the Athens-Clarke officer.

“They’re trying to place me in a mental hospital so I can’t tell you what really happened,” Hood said.

The prosecutor allied himself with the defendant on the mental-health issue.

“Jamie Hood maintains his competency and refuses to condone or give any credence to the legal fiction created by the defense,” Mauldin states in his motion.